Waiting on Emre Can’s Inevitable Juventus Move

With a just little over two weeks left to go before Emre Can is free to sign a pre-contract agreement with some other club, the picture remains unclear when it comes to Liverpool’s 23-year-old midfielder. What doesn’t seem to have changed is an apparent acceptance on the Liverpool end that he isn’t going to stick around.

Beyond that, things are far from certain, and multiple reports out of Italy are this week taking seemingly contradictory stances. Even from the same outlet there can be wild, day to day disagreement in the breathless exclusives and claimed insights into the inner workings at Juventus that rather undercut any claims to insight.

On Wednesday, for instance, Calciomercato claimed it was full speed ahead for Juventus on signing Can to a pre-contract agreement and that the club were currently considering a Liverpool proposal whereby the English club would allow Can to leave in January for around €10M—the price they first paid to sign him.

Today, they claim their sources at Juventus are casting doubt on a Can deal, saying the club have moved to sign Monaco’s Fabinho and that the deal would tap into the funds that were meant to pay for Can. Or: it’s a case of one or the other, and as of today—Thursday, if you’re keeping score at home—the one is Fabinho.

Meanwhile, Tuttomercatoweb’s claims today—again, Thursday if you’re keeping score—are that the Can deal is done but that it is likely Juventus will content themselves with a pre-contract agreement and waiting until the summer to welcome Can to the club. In all likelihood it all adds up to nothing more than noise.

Can’s situation has seemed largely settled for some time now, but that just means the rumour mongers are left trying to find new ways to write about it—new spins to put on it—as the weeks tick by towards the inevitable. Hopefully, at least that will be at an end in short order.